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Unions agree to Medford makeup days Wednesday Feb 1, 2017 at 4:44 PM Feb 1, 2017 at 6:52 PM Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune @teresathomas_MT Medford School District employee unions Tuesday approved the district’s proposal to extend the school year by two days — June 15-16 — and make Feb. 20 and March 13 instructional days to make up snow days. District administrators worked closely with the Medford Education Association and Oregon School Employees Association leadership to come up with a plan to make up the four days of school students missed because of a snowstorm the first week of January, according to a Medford School District release. The first proposal, which extended the school year by only one day but asked teachers to give up a grading/professional development day in April, was rejected by MEA membership. But a second proposal was ratified by both unions Tuesday and will be presented to the Medford School Board for consideration at an emergency meeting set for Monday, Feb. 6, said district spokeswoman Natalie Hurd. The proposed changes mean students will attend school President’s Day (Feb. 20) and a parent-teacher conference day (March 1) and won’t get out of school for the summer until Friday, June 16. Teachers will be required to work through Tuesday, June 20. “The goal of changing the calendar was to provide instruction for students earlier in the year as opposed to later in the year, before (Smarter Balanced) and AP testing and before students were heading into summer break,” said Troy Pomeroy, vice president of the MEA, in a news release. The Oregon State Board of Education on Jan. 26 approved a temporary rule allowing districts to request a waiver of up to 14 hours of emergency school closures. Districts wishing to take advantage of the waiver must request permission from Deputy Superintendent Salam Noor. Nonetheless, most local districts have chosen not to request the waiver. “We’ve followed the process closely, but it is our understanding that the waiver is for districts in extreme situations,” Hurd said. “Some districts have lost nine or 10 days due to the weather. We only lost four days, which we didn’t feel was extreme. Furthermore, we believe our students deserve every bit of instruction time laid out in our original calendar year.” In Central Point, administrators have proposed adding instructional time March 10 (previously a grading/professional development day), March 22-23 (previously parent-teacher conference days) and extending the year by one day to June 15. Schools could choose to use March 24, which also was earmarked for parent-teacher conferences, for grading, professional development or priority conferences and will notify parents about conference scheduling, said Central Point Superintendent Samantha Steele. The Central Point School Board will vote on the proposed calendar revisions at its Feb. 7 meeting. “We wanted it to be good for students, easy for parents and ensure the grading and professional development time that teachers value,” Steele said. Eagle Point’s schools still meet the state’s minimum requirement for instructional minutes and will not need to make up any of the snow days, said Human Resources Director Allen Barber. “But, obviously, any future closures could cause us to re-examine that,” he said. The Ashland School District intends to make up three of the four snow days by using a previously scheduled snow day, March 24, and having students attend classes on March 1 and 2, which were previously conference days. Phoenix-Talent administrators were not immediately available for comment, but staff said calendar revisions were on the agenda for Thursday's School Board meeting. — Reach education reporter Teresa Thomas at 541-776-4497 or [email protected]. Follow her at www.twitter.com/teresathomas_mt.